Syrians appeal directly to UN observers

The Syrian government’s attempts to whitewash evidence of a brutal crackdown on the country’s five-month uprising appeared to backfire after a visiting United Nations humanitarian delegation was met by protesters waving SOS signs.

Hundreds of demonstrators in Homs, which has had tanks on its streets and snipers on its roofs for weeks, surrounded the UN car in the central New Clock square, shouting for the overthrow of the regime and holding up the signs, according to video footage and local residents.

Crowds there and in several other cities have been emboldened by signs of an imminent victory for the rebels in Libya after six months of a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation-backed offensive against the regime of
Muammar Gaddafi
. Syrian messages of congratulations and messages to President
Bashar al-Assad
that he will be next have been circulating online.

A woman in Homs said: “Libya has given us encouragement. But the international community needs to know what has been happening here. What is being reported only scratches the surface."

The jubilation at the Libyan rebels’ gains eclipsed a televised interview with a defiant Mr Assad on Sunday in which he threatened “intolerable" consequences for the international community if it intervened in Syria and suggested force would continue to be used against an “increasingly militant" opposition.

With the success of the NATO offensive in Libya, questions of similar action in Syria have inevitably been raised.

But the appetite among protesters or in the international community for military action in Syria, which has links to numerous flashpoint conflicts in the region, is almost non-existent.

Syria’s state news agency Sana said Mr Assad has formed a committee to approve the formation of rivals to the ruling Ba’ath party in the run-up to parliamentary elections early next year.

Related Quotes

Company Profile

Human rights groups say more than 2000 people have been killed in the crackdown since mid-March, with thousands more detained and tortured.

Two people were shot dead in Homs after security forces opened fire on the crowds who had poured out to meet the UN team, residents said, while two people were shot dead overnight in Hama. The UN would demand that Syria allow a team to assess whether crimes against humanity had been committed, an official said.

Another UN official told The Guardian that the government had stuck to its promise to allow the delegation unfettered access to the country but residents from Homs said the mission missed a key neighbourhood of Khaldiyeh.